Greetings from the Newberry County Literacy Council. We have many programs underway now that fall is here. The Saturday Kids’ Academy, sponsored by the Literacy Council, Newberry Elementary School, and the United Way has begun. This program brings K through three students together with their parents every other week to improve reading schools. The Weekly Reader Book club is reading “Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave” written by Leonard Todd. Dave was born in Edgefield around 1801 and died in the 1870s. His owner put him to work in a pottery shop where he became a skilled potter known for the quality and size of the jugs he made. Amazingly, he signed many of his creations and sometimes added lines of poetry he made up. We don’t know how he learned to read and write since slaves were not allowed to have these skills. Today his pots are very valuable and many are in museums. The Council has scheduled a road trip to Edgefield to view sites where Dave worked.
The People’s College fall seminar “Conscience, Morality, and Democracy” has finished a short book by Eleanor Roosevelt and is completing a book about 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr, though not remembered often today, was a giant figure from the 1930s through the 1960s. His work influenced theologians, social scientists, and political leaders. Martin Luther King Jr. cited him in speeches as a person who influenced his views about power and non-violence and both John McCain and Barrack Obama mentioned him in their presidential campaigns. His most famous book is “Moral Man and Immoral Society.” His thesis was that individuals are capable of thinking and acting rationally and morally, though often they don’t, but that group behavior is ruled almost exclusively by self-interest. I, as an individual, may act in accordance with reason and moral standards with family and friends but belong to groups that act purely in terms of self-interest. I may feel compassion for the homeless, financially support programs for the homeless, including shelters, yet, as a member of a group, oppose the particular placement of a shelter because it may affect the business interests of my group or property values in my neighborhood. My moral stance about the homeless is trumped by the interests of my group. Although what happens to the homeless in a community is important, when we turn to national and international interests the stakes are higher. As individuals form groups out of their self-interest, democracy is supposed to provide checks and balances so that the interest of one group is restrained by other groups with different and often competing interests. A problem exists when a group becomes so powerful it can always get its way. Under slavery and during the Jim Crow era, whites were able to dominate African-Americans, retaining all privileges for themselves. As Niebuhr pointed out, and King and the Civil Rights movement realized, change could come only through organizing power against the white dominance. Whites would not voluntarily give up their advantage. As Niebuhr wrote in his 1932 book, “However large the number of individual white men who do and who will identify themselves completely with the Negro cause, the white race in America will not admit the Negro to equal rights if it is not forced to do so. Upon that point one may speak with a dogmatism which all history justifies.”
We know that Niebuhr was right; it took the organization of a powerful civil rights movement to force change. What does Niebuhr mean for us today? For one thing, his work suggests that for any piece of legislation, for any proposal, we need to look at which groups have taken an interest in it. It may be a proposal to change the tax code, or to raise minimum wage, or to permit more fracking. Some groups will be in favor, some oppose. We should ask, how will the legislation or proposal affect these groups? If legislation is passed, we need to ask “which groups benefit and which groups lose?” Generally, in the Niebuhr world, the winners will be those who have organized more powerful groups. And these groups likely will represent large-scale economic interests – big corporations and financial houses. Their significant resources enable them to wage large campaigns and speak in a louder voice that can overwhelm the ability of smaller groups to present a different view. In this scenario, arguments about the common good or compassion or moral standards are absent except as rhetoric to rationalize any groups self-interest. Many will view Niebuhr’s arguments with skepticism but many have found them helpful. The point, as far as literacy is concerned, is that in a complicated world we need to be aware of and have some understanding of different ways of viewing this world so that we construct the best understanding we can of how it operates.
When we finish the Niebuhr book we will move on to a book written by Marian Wright Edelman, a South Carolina native who became the founder and director of the Children’s Defense Fund and a major force in fighting for the rights of all children. More about this book in another column.
Until next time, Happy Reading!
